White House economist Goolsbee steps down

The top White House economist Austan Goolsbee said last Monday that he was stepping down.

Just less than a year after he was named chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, Goolsbee plans to return to his teaching job at the University of Chicago.

Goolsbee and Obama got to know each other at the University of Chicago, where the president had been a lecturer in constitutional law. Goolsbee advised Obama’s campaign for the Senate in 2004 and his 2008 presidential campaign.

Prior to being promoted to CEA chairman last September, Goolsbee served as one of the three members of the Council of Economic Advisers, whose main function is to provide economic forecasts for the president.